Cam Gordon

Working for a Minneapolis where each of us has the freedom and opportunity to reach our individual potentials while caring for one another, improving our environment and promoting social well-being. Focused not only on our immediate needs, but also on the future we want for ourselves, our children and for generations to come.

Dedicated to using the values ofSocial and Economic Justice, Ecological Wisdom, Grassroots Democracy, Peace, Community Based Economics, and Respect for Diversity to guide his work.

The Second Ward occupies the Eastern-Central part of Minneapolis and straddles the East and West banks of the iconic Mississippi River gorge. It includes a diverse mix of residential, institutional, industrial and commercial land uses with some of the highest density housing outside of downtown, flourishing low density residential neighborhoods, thriving and underutilized industrial areas and major commercial corridors like University Ave and East Lake Street. It is also home to several significant institutions including the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College and the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview. For more information about the people and places of Ward 2, see ourWard 2 Planning Department Profile and our Regulatory Services 2016 Report.

Current Projects

Participatory Budgeting

Working with Council Member Glidden and building on research our offices had been doing as well as a recommendation from our Capital Long-range Improvement Committee (CLIC) the Council voted in December to direct staff from the City Coordinator and City Clerk’s offices to develop a plan for a participatory budgeting program in Minneapolis. They will use input from community stakeholders and City advisory committees such as CLIC, the Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission, and cultural and community organizations, as well as neighborhood organizations to draft a plan (by June 2017) for a participatory budgeting program. I am very excited about this initiative and expect the plan to include best practices form other cities’ existing participatory budgeting process and those cities’ metrics for evaluation of success of the program, recommendations for the participatory budgeting process including number of participants, methodologies of voting, and organizing structure, strategies for outreach to the City’s 70 neighborhood organizations, cultural and community organizations, and under-represented groups, including youth, recommended ranges of dollar amounts and components of the budget, preferably one-time capital or operating expenditures that could be delegated to a participatory budget process, sample timelines, potential public, non-profit, and private partners, and an outline of City administrative dollars and potential funding sources for an annual participatory budgeting process.

Better Banking Options

In June, finance staff reported back on the motion I co-authored with Council Member Cano as part of the 2017 Budget approval process last December that directed staff to explore ways for the City to stop doing business with financial institutions that invest in the fossil fuel industry. You can find the staff report and presentation here. In response I worked with Council Members Cano and Glidden to get the Council to approve two motions that could help move the city towards developing better and more responsible financial alternatives. The first calls for the city to develop a timeline and process for drafting a Socially Responsible Procurement and Contracting Policy for all goods and services procured by the City, including banking services. The second asks staff to recommend a timeline and costs for completing a study of the feasibility of establishing a publicly-owned banking operation with consideration of different scopes of services, including a smaller operation to serve targeted needs. I have long advocated for a broader policy on socially responsible purchasing and procurement and believe it could provide needed guidance for better contracts for all services including financial services. I am also convinced that a feasibility study, similar to the path that Santa Fe has followed, could be very useful before we take the next steps towards forming a municipal bank.To learn more about municipal banking visit http://www.publicbankinginstitute.org/intro_to_public_banking. To learn more about Santa Fe’s progress see http://bankingonnewmexico.org/what-is-a-public-bank/

QUICK LINKS

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